Faraway Heavens
by SomeSnowInShell
Summary: Mathias and Lukas are high school students and best friends, with Lukas' little brother Emil tagging along. Everything is good in their lifes, until one day Lukas disappears unexpectedly. AU.


**AN:** Moi! It's me again, with this new story~! I was feeling a bit bored and thought that I could get this out and make your wait for the two other stories a bit easier. ^^ This story takes place in Norway, it's AU, as you may have already figured out. The reason why the genres read "Fantasy" will be revealed later... In the 3rd chapter, I think~ I have planned this story to be about 10-12 chapters long in total, unless the plot gets out of hand (which seems to happen to me pretty often xD). I also try to keep the chapters in the same lenght (unlike with MoJ...). Now, before I forget (or get carried away with blabbering) the disclaimer and the names and ages of the main cast.

**Hetalia Axis Powers belongs to Himaruya Hidekaz.** I'm plainly using his characters to my own and your amusement. All I own is the plot of this story.

Denmark = Mathias Jensen, 17 (second year in high school)  
Norway = Lukas Bondevik, 17 (second year in high school)  
Iceland = Emil Bondevik, 15 (third year in junior high/secondary school)

**Cultural note:** In Norway the school years go 7-3-3, and the kids start school a year later than in America, for example.

Now, enjoy~

* * *

**"Faraway Heavens"**

**Prologue: Disappearance**

"Norge! Norge! Hey, Norge!" A pencil poked Lukas' arm during History class.

"What?" He snapped and turned to face Mathias sitting next to him. Mathias grinned. "You noticed~"

Lukas stared. "That's it? You're an idiot," he stated and turned back to his notes again.

"Nonono! That's not it! I actually have something to tell ya!"

"Well, I'm not going to listen."

Mathias whined. "But, Norgeeee..."

"I'm taking notes, you. You should, too." Lukas deadpanned, not sparing a glance to Mathias.

Mathias pouted but hastily copied the rest of the notes from the board anyway, with a handwriting Lukas doubted no-one to be able to decipher later. Sometimes he had to wonder how the Dane managed to pass all his exams with OK grades.

The bell rang and the students started shuffling around in the class, the speaking volume rising again after whispering through the class. Mathias stuffed his papers into his backpack and stood up, rolling on the balls of his feet restlessly, waiting for Lukas. The Norwegian handled his schoolbag much more delicately, and took his time before standing up. "Now, what was that thing you wanted to say?"

"Let's go get ice cream!"

Lukas sighed. "I've got club. And you have football practise. Later. Maybe."

"Well~" Mathias scratched the back of his head. "Of course I didn't mean right now, I know you have your freaky club-" he dodged Lukas' blow just in time. "So, I guess I'll see you later!" And with that the Dane was off.

"If we finish up earlier in the Occult Club, I won't wait for you!" Lukas yelled after the retreating boy.

"I see!"

But of course Lukas ended up waiting for Mathias.

* * *

The door of the Bondevik household opened, and from the way it was slammed shut, Emil could easily guess his big brother (not that he would ever call him that) had just came home. And that he was probably tired after a long day of his Danish best friend's antics. "Welcome home!" He called to Lukas just as he appeared to the living room doorway.

"Hei, Emil," Lukas nodded to his little brother. "Xiang," he acknowledged Emil's Hongkonger best friend sitting next to him on the sofa. Then he started to upstairs.

"Are you hungry?" Emil called after him. "I think mamma left something in the fridge. Xiang and I have already eaten."

Lukas' head appeared into the doorway again. "I'm fine. The idiot treated me to ice cream after school and then we went to his house and did homework there. Meaning, I did, while he did everything to distract me. Mrs. Jensen had made pie and she served that to us, so really, I'm stuffed." Lukas disappeared again and the sound of him climbing up the stairs could be heard. "I'm a bit tired. I'll be in my room if you guys need me."

"Okay."

The rest of the evening wore out normally. Lukas and Emil's parents came home and they had a family dinner with Xiang also eating with them after their mom insisted him to, and then leaving home. Later, Lukas read a book downstairs, curled up on the corner of the sofa, while Emil and their mom watched a movie together and their father worked on his laptop.

The whole family went to bed early.

* * *

At night, a bright light flashed on one of the upstairs' windows.

* * *

When Emil descended the stairs the next morning, while trying to flat his morning hair, the sun was already up. The kitchen and dining area were empty, which slightly confused the white-haired boy. He knew his parents had already left for work, but usually Lukas was up before he was, drinking his morning coffee and reading the newspaper on the dining table.

"Maybe his alarm clock failed... He must be still in bed... Need to go wake him up..." Emil muttered to himself, still slightly drowsy. With that he started ascend the stairs again.

Emil reached his brother's room after a few minutes. He opened the door and found the room empty. The bed was unmade, he noted, very unlike Lukas, who was known to be a neat person.

"Huh. Maybe he left in a hurry. Some extra club meeting or something." Emil reasoned. "I'll see him at school." Then a yawn broke out from the boy's mouth. "But now, I need my coffee..."

And he made his way to the kitchen again.

And got even more annoyed when finding the coffee pot empty as well.

* * *

A few hours later Mathias was getting confused, too. He hadn't seen Lukas all morning, even though they had made a deal to see each other before the first class which they had separatedly. Now it was already time for History, and Lukas was nowhere to be seen. Mathias kicked a wall in frustration and whined when it immediately gained him a glare from the History teacher who had just came to open the class' door.

Mathias dragged himself to his desk and slumped down on his chair sullenly. The teacher started his droning in front of the class and to amuse himself, Mathias put his earplugs on (hiding them with the hood of his jacket, of course) but didn't turn the music on from his Ipod, instead setting on dubbing the second World War the teacher was talking about to something completely different. Unfortunately it held no meaning to him, as Lukas wasn't there to rip the earplugs off and tell him to concentrate and not play around in class.

_'Maybe he has gotten sick... He looked fine yesterday, though... Maybe a bit more tired than usual but still okay...' _Mathias mused to himself, finally turning his Ipod on to blare music into his ears and completely fall in his own world.

Suddenly someone knocked the classroom's door and Mathias felt his hopes sore. Maybe it was Lukas, coming late for some reason. It would be very unlike him to oversleep for... - Mathias checked the clock on the wall - ...for three hours, but hey, no-one was perfect!

The teacher opened to door and let Tino, the little Finnish guy who sometimes hang around with Mathias and Lukas with Berwald, in the class. Mathias racked his brain, he couldn't remember Tino having this class with him. Well, maybe he just hadn't noticed him before as he sat with Lukas and Tino probably sat on the other side of the class with someone else. Like that Estonian kid, maybe?

"Eheheh... I'm sorry I'm late, I somehow thought I had English..." Tino was explaining himself to the teacher who just nodded. Then Tino made his way to Mathias and sat down next to him.

"H-hey!" Mathias cried out, "t-that's Lukas' seat!"

Tino blinked those big eyes of his at the Danish boy. "I-I'm sorry... I don't know who you're talking about... I have sat here ever since we started school after summer..."

Now Mathias was getting even more confused. He decided to visit Emil, Lukas' little brother during lunch hour to ask if he knew what had happened to his friend.

His hopes concerning him to be able to distract himself for the rest of the class were soon ruined, as the teacher somehow noticed his earplugs and took them away, telling Mathias he would get them back at the end of the year. Mathias made a rude hand gesture to the teacher's back the moment he turned away, to Tino's great horror.

* * *

When the lunch hour rolled around, Mathias took a flying leave from his English classroom. His day so far had been disastrous. It was like everyone around him had completely forgotten Lukas! … But the was absurd! Everyone who knew Mathias (and he definitely was a showy person at school) automatically knew Lukas as well. They were the kind of epic best friends (and maybe something more...)! Anyway, Mathias quickly made the ten minute walk to Emil's junior high where Emil was doing his last year. It didn't take long to spot the white-haired younger boy talking with his friends in the school yard. "Emil!" He shouted, unable to keep all the distress he was feeling away from his tone.

Emil looked up and immediately bid a quick goodbye to his friends when he saw Mathias. Walking to him, they exchanged hellos and then Emil asked the question Mathias had been dreading: "Hey, Mathias... Why is Lukas not with you?"

"Um... I was about to ask the same question to you... I haven't seen Lukey all day... I thought he had gotten sick...?"

"N-no... He had left before I woke up... His bed was unmade, like he had left in a hurry... I thought he had some extra club meeting and that he would be with you...?" The poor kid was starting look like he was about to start panicking, looking up at Mathias with desperate purple eyes. It was getting obvious that neither one of them had any idea of Lukas' whereabouts. "Ma-maybe we should call his phone...?" Emil asked and right away started to dig his jeans pocket to find his cell, then going through his contact list... again and again. When he looked back at Mathias, his eyes were wide and scared and he was getting seriously pale. "O-odd," he spoke in a shaky voice, "i-it looks like I have might have accidentally deleted Lukas' number... I c-can't find it..."

"No problem!" Mathias said, maybe a bit too fast, "I can call him!" He fished his phone from his pocket and soon found "Norge" from his contact list and pressed 'call'. He put his phone on speaker so Emil could speak with his brother as well. Both of the boys held their breath as the phone rang. Once, twice, thrice... Then there was a moment of silence before a small click came.

"_The number you chose cannot be reached. Please wait a moment and try again."_

Emil and Mathias shared a look before Mathias pressed 'call' again. Then he put the phone on speaker. This time the click came faster.

"_The number you chose is not in use. Please check the number and try again."_

Mathias felt his stomach fall to his knees and his legs were about to give out under him. He was sure he was dreaming. This could not be true.

* * *

Emil stood quietly on spot with his whole body quivering slightly. _This was a nightmare!_ Lukas... His big brother _had_ to be _somewhere_! It was just that nothing was making sense in his world any more.

This was horrible... A nightmare...

Emil snapped out of his thoughts when the bell rang and Mathias had to run back to his own school. Emil returned to his friends, feeling numb inside. The girls had went to their own classes by now and only Xiang had stayed to wait for him.

"Are you, like, okay?" Xiang asked, frowning when seeing Emil's abnormal paleness (not that Emil had that much colour on his face normally, but this was already worrying).

Emil's voice sounded weak and brittle even in his own ears. "Lukas has disappeared."

A moment of silence followed and during that, Xiang's face turned slowly from neutral to confused. "Lukas?" he asked.

Emil's voice shook even more when he answered. "Yes. M-my brother."

"You don't have a brother..."

"I do! You saw him just yesterday! After school...!"

Xiang just gave Emil an odd look before saying they needed to get to class.

For the rest of the day, it took all Emil's willpower to not start to fake sickness so he could ask the teacher for a permission to go home early and check if Lukas was there. Well, emotionally he was sick with worry. Unfortunately when his last class ended, Xiang asked him to come over to his house for some hours... They had promised to do so the previous day. To not worry his friend more, Emil agreed to come. It wasn't until dinnertime that he could finally go home and by that time his parents had already came home as well.

"Emil!" his mother called delightedly as the boy ran inside. "You came just in time for dinner."

"Okay!" Emil shouted back before quickly running upstairs and bursting into Lukas' room... or what he thought was Lukas' room.

His father looked up from his papers with an annoyed and tired expression. "Emil... I have asked you million times to knock the door before entering when you have something to tell to me."

"But..."

"No buts. You need to agree to our rules, Emil." Then the older man sighed. "Now, what did you have to tell me?"

"Um..."

"Dinner's ready, dear!" Emil's mother appeared in the doorway next to Emil. His father nodded and thanked before standing up. The whole family (minus Lukas!) made their way downstairs and in the kitchen. On the way through the living room, Emil's eye caught into some family photos his mother had arranged on a side table. He made a shocking realisation: just his parents and himself were smiling together in the photos. Lukas was nowhere to be seen.

"M-mamma..." Emil stared the photos and his voice shook again. "W-where's Lukas? W-where is brother...?"

Both of Emil's parents turned to him, his mother worried and his father expressionless. His mother came to him and rested a hand on his forehead. "Oh, honey," she cooed, "are you feeling okay? You don't feel feverish..." She petted Emil's fringe out of the way gently and kissed his forehead, then turning to gaze in his eyes deeply and carefully, resting her hands on his cheeks.

"Brother..." Emil still tried to insist.

"Emil." His father spoke for the first time, in a strict tone that left to room for objections. Both the white-haired boy and his mother jumped, and turned to look at the man. "You don't have a brother. You are our only child."

Emil looked at his mother desperately but she just nodded sadly. He suddenly felt sick to his stomach.

Later that night, Mathias got a panicked phone call.

* * *

**TBC...**

Please review and tell me what you think! =D But I'd also appreciate if you could restrain from asking me to hurry with another chapter until I get "MoJ" and "Stardust" out! ^^" (Also please tell me if you spot any typos, my proof reading could have been better and nothing can chance the fact that English is not my native language.)


End file.
